


Not Coming Home

by LacePendragon



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Backstory, During V4E10, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:46:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LacePendragon/pseuds/LacePendragon
Summary: “Tai, she’s not coming.” The words rang in the air as Qrow spoke them, staring down his best friend in the battlefield as the monsters loomed overhead. Their great shrieks surrounded them on all sides. “She’s not coming, Tai.” Or: What Qrow was dreaming of in V4E10.





	Not Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written January 25th, 2017. Reposted October 31st, 2018. Happy Halloween.

_“Tai, she’s not coming.” He was free falling, stumbling. The stretcher did little to stop his fall. The past came up fast, swallowing him whole until he was but a spectator to the horror show of his memories._

“Tai,” said Qrow. “She’s not coming back.” His voice was low, hoarse, and barely audible above the shrieking of the circling Nevermore overhead. They were far above the two of them, three of them circling and waiting. Watching.

Nevermore weren’t usually scavengers, but the trees were too densely packed for them to get to Tai and Qrow. Qrow grimaced from where he sat under the tree, one hand on his stomach. Blood was seeping, slowly but surely, through the wound on his side. An Ursa had sliced him after his aura broke, leaving him down for the count and Taiyang left to defend the pair by himself.

“She’ll come,” said Taiyang. There was a bow-staff on his back – a staff that turned into a bow, Taiyang thought the name was a funny pun – but it wasn’t his weapon. It was a loaner, something a villager nearby had given them when they’d been visiting the previous day. An old huntress had had it, the villager had said, and they’d all gone quiet.

Qrow knew what it meant.

They weren’t the first to try and take down the monsters in this place. The problem wasn’t even the Nevermore or the Ursae or the Beowolves. The problem was the thing leading them all. A fucking Beringel.

A _motherfucking Beringel._

The bastard had been guiding them all, showing them how to fight. If not for it, he and Tai could have wiped the floor with these fuckers.

But instead, they’d been ambushed, attacked, and now Qrow was laying against a tree in the dirt, slowly bleeding out, while Taiyang looked for miracles in the clouds.

“Tai,” croaked Qrow. He coughed, blood on his lips and exhaustion clinging to his bones. His head was light, his body heavy, and he wanted to _sleep_. He knew he couldn’t, but that didn’t stop the want. “ _Tai.”_

“She’ll come,” said Taiyang. He clenched his fists at his sides, his tone and his gaze equal parts desperate and determined. The Grimm circled in the shadows. They were waiting.

No need to fight for a meal that would be yours with patience. The Beringel must have taught them that.

“She has to come,” said Taiyang, but he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself that Qrow. Qrow closed his eyes.

“We haven’t seen Raven since the day she dropped Yang at your doorstep and ran,” said Qrow. His mouth was bitter, his words acid. His vision spotted and god, he just wanted to _sleep._

He was probably dying.

And Tai was still holding out for miracles.

Branwens didn’t do miracles. They were omens, bad luck charms, bitter foes who did nothing for anyone but themselves. Hell, Qrow probably wouldn’t have come if she’d done half the things he’d done to her.

This mission was a mistake. Tai had two toddlers at home. He’d only come because Qrow had begged.

And now they were both going to die and it was all his fault.

“She has to come.”

_“She has to come.”_

He stood in the kitchen of their home in Patch – was it even his? He didn’t know. It was long after midnight, and Ruby and Yang were both down for the night. Ruby had been fussy, wanting her mom, and Tai had taken a while to get them down.

Now, Qrow waited, watching the kettle boil, until Taiyang came out of the shower. The silence threatened to pull at him, dragging him down into his mind until he wanted nothing more than to put his hands over his ears and scream.

Summer Rose wasn’t coming home. Summer Rose was probably dead. Summer Rose would never come and kiss her daughters again. She would never tell Tai she loved him again. She would never…

Taiyang stepped into Qrow’s field of vision. He had a towel draped around his bare shoulders and his hair was still dripping onto it.

“Qrow,” said Taiyang.

“She’s not coming,” said Qrow, softly. He looked up Taiyang, eyes soft. “You know that, right?”

Taiyang nodded. “I know,” he said, his voice soft and hoarse. He swallowed hard, lower lip trembling. “I… _fuck._ ” He put his hands to his face and let out a choked sob. Qrow stumbled forward and wrapped his arms around Taiyang’s shoulders, pulling him close as they fell to their knees to the cool tile floor.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Qrow. Tears fell from his eyes and into Taiyang’s hair. “I’m sorry.”

“Please come home,” whispered Taiyang between sobs. “Please, Summer, please prove me wrong. Please come.”

_“Please come.”_

Qrow paced back and forth in the back alley of the bar, his lips pressed together and his hands clenched behind his back. He flexed his hands, pulled them in front of him, ran them through his hair, and then clenched them again behind his back.

“Come on, Raven,” whispered Qrow. He looked up, staring at the clock tower that he could see from his little alcove.

It was two minutes to midnight.

Qrow kept pacing, his mind skimming over the events of the last year. Ozpin, Glynda, relics, Maidens. Fairy tales and magic. Finally, an explanation as to why he could transform into a fucking corvid that wasn’t ‘it’s because you’re secretly bad luck’.

A mission.

He finally had a mission. He finally had a purpose. The team was divided, Summer and Taiyang were doing the domestic thing in Patch, and Raven had walked out after she’d given birth.

Qrow didn’t blame her. Even if he was angry. He knew she had her reasons. He knew she hadn’t walked because she didn’t love them.

It was a lot more complicated than that, in the end.

But he needed to talk to her about something. He needed to talk to her about the maidens, about magic, and about the monsters that were in Mistral, where her bandits were. Not his. They had never been his. He had never wanted them to be his.

He belonged with people that didn’t think the best way to end an argument was to murder someone.

But he had to warn her. The Nuckelavee was roaming Mistral again. The great beast would surely cut down the bandits if they got in its way.

If only she’d show up.

“She has to come,” whispered Qrow.

But above him, the clock chimed midnight and Qrow sighed. She wasn’t coming.

“Damnit Raven,” he whispered. He stalked out of the alley, muttering to himself. “She’s not coming.”

_“She’s not coming.”_

Qrow tumbled through memories, a hundred of them all mixed together, forcing him to relive his worst memories over and over again. He was dying. He knew he was dying. There was no way to get around it. Tyrian’s poison was taking his mind as surely as it took his body.

The world wouldn’t focus. He stared up at the sky where the Nevermore watched for him to finally fall. He stood in the kitchen where Taiyang sobbed when he got confirmation about his dead wife. He punched the wall in an alley where Raven was supposed to be but never was.

_Everyone got one._ Qrow had lost his one a long, long time ago.

He’d just thought, hoped, _prayed_ , that because he was her brother, that maybe he was the exception to the rule.

He’d thought wrong.

Qrow groaned, tossing his head. “She’s not coming, Tai,” he mumbled, eyes fluttering.

“Hang on, Uncle Qrow,” said Ruby. “We’re gonna find you some medicine.”

Her voice was Ruby’s. Her voice was Summer’s. The stretcher was carried by Ruby and Jaune. The stretched was carried by Summer and Taiyang. Past and present bled together until Qrow couldn’t tell one from the other. Until everything faded and he only knew pain and heat and fear.

He was dying.

He was going to leave Ruby and Jaune to fight a monster he couldn’t even warn them about.

He was going to leave the relic open for Salem’s minions.

He was going to leave the world without protection.

He was going to die.

_“She’s not coming.”_


End file.
